AIBA, the governing body for amateur and Olympic boxing, has opened the bidding process to find hosts for some of its major competitions in 2015 and 2016, and qualifying events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

AIBA has sent bidding documents to all 195 of its national member federations to ascertain their interest in staging the events.

The federation is seeking hosts for the biennial Women’s Junior/Youth World Boxing Championships and Junior World Boxing Championships in 2015, and the biennial Women’s World Boxing Championships and Youth World Boxing Championships in 2016.

AIBA recently transformed its rules and competitions based on three different tiers: amateur competitions, called AIBA Open Boxing (AOB); the semi-professional team competition, called World Series of Boxing (WSB); and the professional boxing individual competition, AIBA Pro Boxing (APB). APB is the first and only individual ranking competition in the history of boxing to allow its professional boxers to compete while retaining their Olympic eligibility.

AIBA said it is additionally looking for member associations in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia/Oceania to stage the relevant continental 2016 AOB Olympic qualifying events, and a host for the AOB final Olympic qualifying event, as well as a host for the APB/WSB Olympic qualifying event.

The events are expected to be awarded at the AIBA executive committee meeting in Antalya, Turkey between July 16 and 18.

Just last week, Jeju, in South Korea, was named as host of the 2014 Women’s World Boxing Championships, after Canada withdrew from staging the event, citing problems with finding a suitable venue.

Sofia in Bulgaria is slated to stage the 2014 Youth World Boxing Championships this April.

Albena, also in Bulgaria, and Kiev in Ukraine staged the most recent Junior/Youth World Boxing Championships and Junior World Boxing Championships, respectively, in 2013.